Guintoli to consider surgery despite Assen boost

Sylvain Guintoli says he will seek consultation to decide whether to go under the knife to fix his fractured ankle.

Sylvain Guintoli says he will receive consultation to decide whether he will have his injured ankle operated on, despite being impressed with his race pace at Assen.

The Frenchman struggled in the build up to race day with his pained ankle, which was diagnosed as fractured after the Donington Park round - a month on from when it was first sustained in Australia.

Nonetheless, despite only qualifying in 15th position, Guintoli progressed up the order to climb into the top ten in race one, only to see his efforts ruined when he was caught up in his Effenbert-Liberty Ducati team-mate Jakub Smrz's crash.

Bouncing back to finish in tenth place in race two, Guintoli was happy with his performance in the circumstances.

"I have to honestly say that I did not expect these results, not so much in terms of final position, but with regard to lap times," he said. "Despite the physical problems, my lap times were very close to those of the leaders. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to qualify in the front rows, but I'm sure that starting in a better position I would have seen me fighting for a top five finish.

"[I will now] go to check how my ankle is and decide if surgery will be necessary to fix the problem. In any case I will work at my best - I am sure that I will soon be fighting for the podium positions."